CARMEN'S CHILDREN
by cousin D
Summary: Carmen's earlier life with ACME and how she met Ivy.


  
  
CARMEN'S CHILDREN  
  
These characters are not mine. Pity.  
  
  
WRITTEN BY COUSIN D  
  
Carmen put her cheek close to Chief's screen and she smiled happily.  
"Are you sure about this, Carmen?" He asked with a strange softness in his voice. The blond man on the computer screen looked at his love gently. His public face was so different from the one he showed his family. To them, he was no buffoon, but a kind and sensible creature.  
  
Carmen brushed dark black curls out of her bright blue eyes and smiled up at him. "Absolutely. Chief, I love you. If you were human, I would marry you in a minute. As it is, that's quite impossible. The best I can hope for is that you will help me to raise my children." She turned those passionate eyes on him and if the Chief had a heart, it would have melted.  
  
"I will do anything for you Carmen." He promised and wished that he had arms to hold her. "But, this is a big step for you, Carmen. Do you really want to do this? Artificial insemination is still very experimental."  
  
"It's a good deal better than my alternatives." She replied, only half joking.  
  
Chief didn't laugh. He knew that she had been considering it, before deciding on the artificial insemination. Carmen was certainly no fool to rush into anything without thinking about it and the risk of just choosing some stranger in a bar was just to great. Besides, Carmen didn't believe in casual sex. She only wanted to share sex with someone she cared about. Unfortunately, that person wasn't really a person, no matter how deeply he loved her.  
  
Chief let his screen warm up to gently heat Carmen's face that was still resting against him. "Don't worry, Carmen," He told her. "I'll be with you."  
  
  
Several weeks later-  
  
Carmen touched her belly as she lay in her room at Acme headquarters. She smiled with absolute happiness. Twins! Who would have guessed it? Chief had nearly blown his circuits when she told him about her visit to the doctor.   
  
The yelling had attracted everyone's attention in the building as Chief was making all the lights flash on and off with his happiness. That was how everyone else had found out that she was pregnant. The reactions were varied. She had every reaction from comments on when the due date was to who the father was.  
  
Now, Carmen was simply happy. She was only a couple of weeks into the pregnancy and you couldn't tell from looking at her, but she could almost feel the lives just beginning inside of her. She was happy that they would have a mother and, if not a father, a father figure. She couldn't think of a better father than Chief. He would give them everything they could need.  
  
Carmen chuckled to herself, thinking of this afternoon when Chief had promised to have a playground built for the twins. He was going to spoil them as much as possible.  
  
Even Suhara and his wife, Joanne, were happy for her. Suhara was like a man about to become a grandfather, which was basically true. Joanne was all ready planning the baby shower and trying to help think up names.  
  
Carmen was about to fall asleep when she dimly heard Chief's screen open in the darkness of her room. "Good night, Carmen. " He whispered. He had done this for nearly ten years. Ever since she had come here as a ten-year-old child.  
  
Acme was her only home and she knew no other life. The fact that all of the other detectives went to other homes at night had always seemed bizarre to her. Carmen had lived here always and had few other memories besides the orphanage and Acme. Chief was her whole life.   
  
"Good night, Chief." She whispered back and the world turned to darkness.  
  
**************************  
  
Carmen was chasing him with all that she could. Carmen had, of coarse, called for back up. It would have been stupid to do anything else. Maelstrom was running as fast as his massive weight would allow and Carmen was in far better shape.  
  
She easily caught up to him and cornered the criminal. Carmen thought how pleased Chief would be that she caught the 1# most wanted criminal in the world. She was always pleased that could catch anyone she was after.   
  
Maelstrom snarled at her. "You won't take me, Carmen!" he declared fiercely.  
  
"Now, that's a corny line." She smiled from under her large brown hat. "Can't you think of a better one?"  
  
"How's this?" Maelstrom pulled a handgun from under his coat and Carmen saw it coming in slow motion. Her mind was screaming at her to get out of the way. Move! It yelled at her. The babies!  
  
She saw the bullet come out of the barrel when Maelstrom pulled the trigger and she tried to move, but for once, she was to slow.  
  
Carmen fell to the concrete sidewalk and screamed more with the fear for the babies than out of pain. Laying there, her hand instantly went to her belly. There was a warm, sticky feeling there that she knew to well. Blood.  
  
Maelstrom ran past her, pocketing his gun and Carmen barely saw him. She curled up into a fetal position, but that didn't stop the pain or the fear.  
  
Blood. Everywhere, blood.  
  
Carmen screamed, but her vision was fading. "Chief!" She cried with her last remaining strength.  
  
*************************  
  
Carmen woke in a hospital room. The smell of antiseptic was nearly overpowering. She felt lightheaded and there was a dull pain in her abdomen.   
  
Carmen pushed herself up and confirmed her fears, reading her chart. It was hard to read it with the sedatives running through her system, but the information was pretty clear. She had lost the twins.  
  
Tears started to run down her cheeks. Don't cry, she scolded herself. Chief will be here soon. Don't cry. He's going to be so hurt. He'll need me.  
  
But the tears wouldn't stop and Carmen let herself dissolve into sobs. Her children. They were gone. Gone.  
  
"Why are you crying?"  
  
Carmen looked up, startled. In the doorway stood a little girl with two long red braids on either side of her face. She had large green eyes and the cutest freckles that Carmen had ever seen. But such a serious face.  
  
"I lost my children." Carmen told her. The child couldn't have been more than six and probably wouldn't have understood the whole truth.  
  
The little girl looked at her with such solemn eyes that Carmen wondered what those eyes had seen to take all the life out of them.  
  
"Did you love them?" The girl asked.  
  
"Very much." Carmen answered at once, shocked at the question.   
  
"Then why did you lose them?"  
  
Carmen wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I didn't want to. Something happened and...and now they're gone." God, she was going to cry again.  
  
The girl came further into the room and stood next to Carmen's bed. The girl was wearing a faded green dress with worn black shoes. Her arms were thin and she looked terribly underfed.  
  
"I'm Carmen. What's your name?"  
  
"Ivy. I lost my parents today. They're going to take my brother and me to the orphanage." Ivy told her bluntly. Her eyes were hard. Almost cold and she seemed to be watching Carmen for some sort of reaction.  
  
Carmen blinked at her, not sure what to do or say. She wanted to comfort the girl, but she didn't think that was what Ivy was looking for.  
  
"Did you love them?" Carmen threw Ivy's question back at her, not sure if it was the right thing to do. She wished there were a doctor nearby to take care of the girl. She was in no frame of mind to take care of the girl. Not now.  
  
Ivy's eyes grew wide and fearful. She looked around the small, private room to see if anyone was listening before she crept closer to Carmen and whispered into her ear.   
  
"No."  
  
Carmen just looked at Ivy. She was not the person this child needed to speak to.  
  
"Mama took things in needles and drank nasty smelling stuff from bottles. She wasn't nice when she did that. Daddy did bad things to me." Ivy paused and touched Carmen's cheek where the tears were drying. "I love my little brother. Not them."  
  
"How did you lose them?" Carmen heard herself ask. She should just tell Ivy to go to her room or call for a nurse to take the girl.  
  
"Mama took her medicine in the needles and didn't wake up. Daddy took money from someone and couldn't give it back. The men came and shot daddy. The police came after that." Ivy looked at Carmen with softer eyes now that she had told her story. "If you're a mama, would you hurt your children?"  
  
Carmen shook her head. "Never. I would never hurt children."  
  
"Can I sleep with you?" Ivy asked. "They said Zack, my brother, is to small to have any one sleep with him and I don't want to sleep alone. I'm cold."  
  
Carmen didn't tell her that it was eighty degrees outside and the middle of August. Instead she pulled back the sheets and patted the bed beside her.   
  
Ivy climbed into the bed cuddled into Carmen's side. After the little red head had fallen asleep Carmen brushed the hair out of her face.   
  
Amazing. After such an ordeal, the child would put herself in a vulnerable position with a stranger. Such trust.  
  
Soon the nurse would come and find the little girl. In all likely hood, they had been looking for her.  
  
While Ivy slept, Carmen though about her situation. Chief was going to be heartbroken. She didn't want to think about how her own heart was aching right now. Whatever drugs the doctor's had given her were still clouding her mind and she knew when they wore off, it would hurt so much more.  
  
She couldn't go on at Acme. Somehow she knew that there had to be a change. Something would have to change.  
  
"Carmen!" Chief's screen suddenly appeared in the room. "I came when I saw you were awake. What happened?"   
  
Carmen saw the signs of stress and worry on his face. His glasses were sliding down his nose and his hair was all messed up. His eyes were blood shot and the look he gave Carmen said that he knew she had lost the babies.  
  
Carmen's eyes went hard. "It was Maelstrom." She said. "He had a gun and he shot me."  
  
"Don't worry. We'll get him." Chief promised. Then he saw the child sleeping next to Carmen. "Who's she?" He moved closer to the bed.  
  
"Her name is Ivy. She told me she's just been orphaned and she has a younger brother, Zack. I want them, Chief."  
  
"What?" She knew what he was thinking.  
  
"It's partly because of the twins, yes. But they need someone to love them, Chief. Look up their file. They've been terribly abused. Oh, Chief. How could anyone do anything to hurt such little children? They need us."  
  
Chief looked at Ivy and then to Carmen. "I'll see what I can do." He promised her softly. Chief brought his screen closer to Carmen and rested his cheek against hers. "Everything will be all right, Carmen. Somehow."  
  
Chief left telling her that he was going to find Maelstrom and that Suhara was in a rage. He was threatening to kill Maelstrom. That was not what Carmen wanted. If anyone was going to kill Maelstrom it should be her. She didn't want Suhara going to prison on her behalf though she knew he would do it without regrets, but he had family to take care of.  
  
Carmen had made Chief promise to take Suhara off the case before he did something foolish.  
  
  
****************************************  
  
Three days later at Acme, Carmen was thinking about her decision. It was hard to make, but she needed to have a change. Something to take her mind off the twins. Chief wouldn't be happy, but perhaps this would take his mind off the twins, also. Another challenge.  
  
She had made up her mind two days ago while she was still in the hospital and seen had depressed Chief was. She had to do this for him, and for herself.   
  
-end-  
  
  
  
  



End file.
